Trump Must Be Impeached

Time is broken. In 2017, I swear a week now feels like a year. The calendar says we’re just about 120 days in to Trump’s presidency, but that seems impossibly short for the levels of foolishness we’ve had to face in that time. Maybe we should count by the hours? We’re now 2,880 hours in. That feels more like it. Better yet, maybe thinking of his presidency in terms of minutes makes more sense. Trump has actually been President for 172,800 minutes. That feels like a much more accurate description of how long he’s been office. Every minute is painful.

Really though – just seven days ago I said that the best thing Democrats could do was to focus on local organizing and that we should pretty much forget about any chances of Trump being impeached. I’ve changed my mind. In this past week, Trump fired Comey, then trotted out a host of aides to say that it had nothing to do with the FBI investigation into his ties Russia. Then, speaking to NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump said that right before he fired Comey, he thought of how the Russia investigation was fake news – basically confirming our worst fears and making his entire staff look like fools.

Then, just hours after firing Comey, Trump met with both Henry Kissinger and a Russian delegation. In his meeting with the Russian ambassador, Trump banned American media from attending, but allowed Russian media. Soon we learned that Trump foolishly divulged classified Israeli secrets to the Russians – which set off an international storm of intelligence agencies wondering if they could tell the White House anything at all with Trump in office.

Not to be outdone by it all, it was then revealed that Trump, in a February 14th meeting, asked then FBI Director James Comey to drop his investigation into Michael Flynn. Associates close to Comey revealed that Comey wrote this, and much more down, in copious notes from his meetings with Trump. Those notes also revealed that Trump asked the Attorney General and others to leave the room before he made the request. Late last night we learned that in spite of denying it repeatedly in interviews, Trump’s entire team knew Michael Flynn was under investigation weeks before Trump became President and weeks before they insisted on Flynn becoming National Security Adviser.

Donald Trump should be impeached.

Yes, Democrats must continue organizing locally in every practical way. The fruit of that is already coming forth in cities like Philadelphia where the ultra progressive Larry Krasner just won the election to become District Attorney. We should keep fighting in every possible fight for every available seat and position. However, the rabbit hole we’ve gone down in these past seven days is not just problematic and dangerous, it’s very likely to be illegal.

Republican Congressman Justin Amash, of Michigan, just became the first Republican to say that if the Comey memo is accurate, that Trump should be impeached over it. “Yes,” Amash said simply, when a reporter asked him if the memo was enough to impeach Trump. Asked who he believed between Comey and Trump, Amash replied “I think it’s pretty clear I have more confidence in Director Comey.”

Amash now joins a growing chorus of Democrats calling for impeachment. Congressman Al Green just called for his impeachment on the floor of the House. Widely respected presidential adviser David Gergen, who has worked with presidential administrations longer than I’ve been alive, including that of Richard Nixon, said “Trump is now in impeachment territory.”

Senator Angus King, an Independent from Maine, when asked by Wolf Blitzer if we were now getting closer to impeachment, said “”Reluctantly, Wolf, I have to say yes simply because obstruction of justice is such a serious offense.”

Where we are now, because all that we’ve learned, is simply different than where we were just one week ago. Obstruction of justice is a crime. It increasingly appears, with every passing minute, that Trump, in asking Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn, then firing him, is guilty of this crime. Comey’s notes, and maybe even Trump’s mysterious tapes that he has alluded to, should be able to verify all of this.

Yes, let’s keep organizing, but our calls for the impeachment of Donald Trump must now grow louder and more organized.

Pence will not make a good president either. It will be just a matter of time before his head explodes. If impeachment of your president clears all stages or he retires first, Pence will be a fish out of water. But at least he will be controllable by his party, which is another sickening thought. Maybe at that point we can get to the business of running the country with fewer distractions.

Impeach him for what? Comey admitted NO ONE tried to coerce him into dropping any investigation, everyone Dem and Rep investigating the Russian connection admit there is none between Trumps campaign only those as senile as Maxine Waters look into their tea leaves and see something that isn’t there